Madhav Sharma
Encyclopedia
Madhav Sharma is an Indian born British actor and theatre director. He was educated (amongst other places) at the St. Joseph's College, Bangalore
, the Scottish Church College, Calcutta, and Fergusson College
, Poona, before winning a merit scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
, London
.
and Laura Liddell, followed by a merit scholarship to the RADA.
Work in theatre includes The Man of Mode (RNT Olivier), Tales from Ferozesha Baag (RNT Studio workshops and readings), Prince Of Delhi Palace (RNT Studio), The Massacre (Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds), The Great Theatre of the World (Arcola), Deadeye (Soho Theatre/UK tour/Birmingham Rep), The Accused (Haymarket/UK tour/Theatre Royal Windsor), Indian Ink (Aldwych), Last Dance at Dum Dum (New Ambassadors/UK tour), Behzti and Blithe Spirit (Birmingham Rep), Calcutta Kosher, Worlds Apart, House Of The Sun (Theatre Royal Stratford East), Gulliver’s Travels (Arts), No One Was Saved (Royal Court Upstairs), Baby Love (Soho Poly), High Diplomacy (Westminster), Romeo and Juliet (Shaw/Edinburgh Festival/Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds/Hull Truck /USA), Not Just An Asian Babe (Watermans/Oxford Arms), Untold Secret Of Aspi (Cockpit/Watermans), The Importance Of Being Neutral (ICA), Romeo and Juliet (Albany Empire), Twelfth Night and The Hollow Crown (Theatre Royal Lincoln/tour), Thérèse Raquin (Nottingham Playhouse), Crazyhorse (Bristol New Vic/UK tour), Fiddler On The Roof (Theatre Royal Nottingham/UK tour), The King and I (Edinburgh Playhouse/UK tour)), Twelfth Night (Dundee Rep), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night and The Proposal (UK schools tour), England Our England, Captain Carvalho, and Night Conspirators (Victoria Theatre Salford), Hindle Wakes, How Are You Johnny?, A Murder Has Been Arranged, Alfie, Mr Kettle and Mrs Moon, and An Inspector Calls (Casino Theatre Southport), Othello, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, The Merchant of Venice, Henry V (tour to India, Singapore, Malaysia, Sarawak, Bruneii, N.Borneo and Hong Kong), and the title role in Hamlet (The Howff), directed by Joseph O’Conor who had himself played the role in Sir Donald Wolfit’s Company.
, Coronation Street
, Doctors, Casualty, Ashes to Ashes, Reverse Psychology, Grease Monkeys, Doctors And Nurses, Dalziel and Pascoe, Holby City, Dream Team, Amongst Barbarians, Doctor Who
, Trial and Retribution, McCallum, Fighting Back, Inspector Alleyn, The Rector’s Wife, Tygo Road, Cardiac Arrest, Shalom Salaam, Black And Blue, Medics, Boon, This Office Life, The Bill, South Of The Border, King And Castle, Tandoori Nights, Old Men At The Zoo, Maybury, Minder, Target, The Road To 1984, Blunt Instrument, Cold Warrior, Sarah, Looking For Clancy, The Regiment, Imperial Palace, Adam Smith, The Brahmin Widow, Crown Court, Escape, First Lady, Moonbase 3
, Anything But The Woods, Rogues Rock, Kipling, Z-Cars, The Moonstone, Uncle Tulip, and The Newcomers.
, Such a Long Journey, The Gathering, Shadey, The Blue Tower, Wild West, Innocents, The Awakening, It's a Wonderful Afterlife
and East is East
.
(by Salman Rushdie adapted by Rukhsana Ahmed), A House for Mr Biswas
(by V.S. Naipaul), The Painter of Signs by R.K. Narayan (adapted by William Ash), Stowaway, A Rain of Stones( by Wole Soyinka), The God at the Gate, The Banker’s Tale, The Black Rock, The Dreams of Tipu Sultan, The Goondas of Gopinagar, Scorching Winds, The Great Sentinel and the Great Soul, Grave Affairs (by John Matthew), End of the Line(by Guy Roderick & Peter Cox) , Tughlaq (by Girish Karnad), Captain Colenzo’s Last Voyage, My Enemy My Friend (by Margaret Bhatty), The Panacea (by Amina Osman), Race of the Dugout Canoes (by Richard Edmunds), My Beautiful Launderette Off License Cash and Carry, The Indian Gentleman (by Terry James), Hardly Touching (by Neil Biswas), Swine (by Diane Samuels), The Dolphinarium (by Steve Walker), Heer Ranjha( by Deepak Verma), Singing and Dancing in Kanpur (by David Mowat), The Bandit Queen
(by Deepak Verma), Hanuman’s Child (by Nandita Ghose), Asha (by Tanika Gupta), Kahani Apni Apni, Chota( by Jean Binney), Nightrunners of Bengal ( by John Masters), Broomhouse Reach, Flimi Filmi Inspector Ghote (by H.R.F.Keating), Brides Are Not For Burning, Laura and the Angel, We the Accused, An Affair of Honour, Butterfly Hunt (by Mathew Solon) and Waggoners Walk.
The most recent was directing the rehearsed reading of a new play ‘Prince of Delhi Palace’ by Ravi Kapoor, at the National Theatre Studio.
He was the founding Artistic Director of Actors Unlimited - an idea of his in response to what he saw, and still sees, as unfair discrimination in the British theatre. He simply wanted to give actors more control over their talents, and he was determined that all casting should be done irrespective of race, colour, creed, political or sexual persuasion.
The people, who agreed to be Patrons of Actors Unlimited, were Lord Chitnis, Mr Maneck Dalal, Sir Alec Guinness, Sir Peter Hall, The High Commissioner for India, Lord Jenkins, Ms Miriam Karlin OBE, Mr Swraj Paul, Dame Flora Robson.
The first full season of plays was produced by him at THE HOWFF in Primrose Hill in 1973, in partnership with Margaret Morris (a Granada TV Drama Producer) and MS Productions (which had been formed by them because Ms Morris was not an actor) at the above venue. This season of 6 productions was in association with Roy Guest (a music industry executive, who had the lease of the venue) and Seamus Ewens (who was in charge of the bar and catering). Madhav found all the plays, largely thanks to the help of Richard Imison, Head of Scripts, BBC Radio, and Madhav also found all the directors, designers, stage management, and actors.
Everyone got paid the same. The Company received no public funding and the entire season paid for itself from takings at the box office, bar and restaurant, and by one production transferring to the West End.
Each production rehearsed for 3 weeks and ran for a minimum of 2–3 weeks, and everyone was employed on no less than Equity's minimum terms and conditions.
The productions were all favourably reviewed in the trade and national press.
The productions in this season were:
(a) WAIT TILL THE SON SHINES NELLIE by Lynda Marchal (now Lynda La Plante), directed by Nicholas Barter, with a cast that included Jack Allen, Laurence Carter, Constantin de Goguel, & Barbara Keogh.
(b) KINGDOM COTTAGE by Bill Lyons, directed by Jane Graham (now Jane Morgan), and the cast included Richard O’Callaghan, Emily Richard, & Malcolm Hayes.
(c) PUNCH & JUDY STORIES by David Fitzsimmons, directed by Jonathan Hales, with John Alderton, Paul Angelis, Pauline Collins & Christine Hargreaves in the cast. This production, under the new title of JUDIES, was transferred in due course by Michael White and Robert Fox, in association with Madhav, to the Comedy Theatre in the West End, and was hailed at the time as creating a bit of theatrical history as the first production to do so from the 'fringe' with the same cast, designer, director, stage management etc.
(d) THE LOVE OF LADY MARGARET by Bill Morrison, directed by Margaret Morris, and in the cast were Diana Fairfax, Seymour Matthews, Morris Perry, Stassia Stakis & Katharine Stark.
(e) HAMLET by William Shakespeare, directed by Joseph O’Conor, and the cast included Ronald Forfar, Constantin de Goguel, David Graham, Chris Hunter, Jonathan Newth, Joseph O’Conor, Juan Moreno, Barbara Shelley, John Somerville, David Stern, Carolyn Taylor, and Madhav in the title role.
(f) A double bill of HOME LIFE by Courteline & RESPECTABLE WOMEN by Feydeau, translated and adapted by David Cohen, directed by Roderick Graham, and the cast included Christopher Benjamin, Raymond Graham, Christina Greatrex, Jo Kendall, & Penelope Lee.
All the productions, barring the Shakespeare obviously, were World or London Stage Premieres. Throughout the season, the Sets & Costumes Designer was Cecilia Brereton, the Technical Manager was Hubs Hubback, Lighting was by Roger Ackroyd and Stephen Batiste, and the Stage Management Team was Judy Garrett, Kathy Marechal & Kerry Ross.
In 1974, Actors Unlimited presented another season of London Stage Premieres. Again Madhav found all the plays, the directors, the actors etc. He was assisted in all the administration by two actor colleagues, Amanda Cuthbert and Geoffrey Larder, and received invaluable support from the West End Theatre Producer John Gale.
The productions were:
(a) THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING NEUTRAL by Royce Ryton, designed & directed by Darrol Blake, with Gareth Forwood, Derek Fowlds, Vivien Heilbron, Anthony Sharp, Eleanor Summerfield, Marilyn Taylerson & Madhav among the cast.
(b) SAM SLADE IS MISSING by Bill Morrison, directed by Valerie Hanson, with James Ellis among the cast.
(c) THE IRON HARP, written and directed by Joseph O'Conor, with Tim Barker, John Castle, Clem Davis, Raymond Graham, James Hayes, David Horovitch, Geoffrey Larder, Maureen O’Brien, Dick Sullivan, Jeremy Young, & Harry Webster in the cast.
(d) AWAY FROM IT ALL by Peter King, directed by Alex Marshall, with Ann Bell, Rodney Bewes, Peter Jeffrey, Wilfred Pickles (later replaced, because of illness, by Colin Douglas), & Zena Walker in the cast.
The backstage team for this season involved Hubs Hubback as the Technical Director, Roger Ackroyd for lighting, designers included Mary Moore and Stephanie England, and the Stage Management team was Susanna Dawson, Tim Gale, Lindsay Garforth, Chris Hunter & Carolyn Taylor.
The next few years were spent arguing with the Arts Council - who were only interested in funding the setting up of an all Asian theatre company, a concept that Madhav was opposed to as the only strategy - because of his instinctive revulsion of separatism, his commitment to professional standards, and his belief that we all, irrespective of colour of skin, should challenge unfair discrimination in different ways, and also from within the mainstream. Sadly, there were many who were opposed to this and they came from the Left as well as from the Right of the political spectrum. They, some of them Asians, believed in separate development as the only answer, and thought all notions of artistic standards and trades union terms of employment to be a bourgeois imposition. With hindsight, one can see that they deliberately confused the funders by conflating the argument about supporting ethnic artists in ethnic art forms with supporting artists of ethnic backgrounds who wished the freedom to pursue work in whatever art forms they chose. The ACGB did not fund Actors Unlimited for many years, refusing even seed money to constitute it as a legal entity, and finally only gave a guarantee against loss for the project in 1983, which was also supported by the GLAA, the GLC, and an Emergency Theatre Fund administered by British Equity.
Paradoxically, the Arts Council asked the Wakefield Tricycle Theatre
Company to take Madhav on board as co-Artistic Director with Shirley Barrie & Kenneth Chubb, to inject professional standards and Trades Union values into their work.
In partnership with and for the Wakefield Tricycle Theatre Company, in 1977, Madhav directed CONFESSION FEVER by Terry James, at the King’s Head in Islington, designed by Peter Ling & lighting by Tim Ball, with John Castle, Julie Dawn Cole, Douglas Fielding, Julia Goodman & Maureen O’Brien in the cast.
In 1978, again in partnership with and for the Wakefield Tricycle Theatre Company, Madhav directed A DAY FOR EVER by Michael Sharp, at the Open Space Theatre in Tottenham Court Road, designed by Jane Smith and lighting by Tim Ball, with Keith Barron, June Brown, Jill Dixon, Marion Fiddick, Harold Goodwin, Geoffrey Larder, Lynne Miller, Stella Tanner, & Royston Tickner in the cast.
Madhav also directed THE MID-ATLANTIC CABLE CAR STATION by Terry James at the Terrace Theatre of the ICA in The Mall.
After he left the Wakefield Tricycle Theatre Company (having helped them secure architect’s plans for a new Tricycle Theatre building, and obtaining Miriam Karlin as one of the patrons), Madhav carried on working as an actor and an occasional freelance theatre director, continued with his Equity activities, whilst all the time trying to gain support for developing and continuing the principles of non-discriminatory work.
In early 1981, in partnership with Verity Bargate & Bill Ash (who were the Artistic Director & Literary Manager of the Soho Poly), Madhav directed ALIENS by Karim Alrawi
at this venue, designed by Dee Greenwood, lighting by Graham Cull, Stage Management of Mike Freer & Yvonne Sellins, and with Carol Gillies, Geoffrey Larder & Art Malik in the cast.
During 1979 and 1980, in partnership with Richard Everett, Estelle Daniel, David Loyn, and the Upstream Theatre Club, the Rev David Wickert, and Anne Hopkinson, Madhav directed two productions at St Andrew’s Church in Short Street.
They were:
THE PROMISE by Alexei Arbuzov, designed by David Roger and lit by Christopher Bush Bailey, with Polly March and Stephen Lyons among the cast.
SCHUBERT by Ronald Duncan, designed by David Roger and lit by Christopher Bush Bailey, with Jenny Seagrove, Royston Tickner & Michael Wolf in the cast.
It was in the autumn of 1980 that Madhav was introduced to Ravi Jain, the General Secretary of the National Association of Asian Youth, by Tariq Younis. Ravi offered him a job, which Madhav accepted on certain conditions. He was to be Artistic Director of an Asian Festival (not a Youth Festival as in previous years, but a more high profile event showcasing British Asian professionals, in which he would involve some Asian youth, especially for education, training and development) in 1981, for which he would be paid a small salary and given access to a room in their Southall offices, a telephone and an assistant of his choosing. Madhav would have total artistic control, once a policy document that he would submit was approved by the NEC of the NAAY, and Actors Unlimited would become a project of the NAAY (already an established charity, thereby making it easier to attract funds to develop AU’s work). Also, Madhav could continue to work as a freelance actor and theatre director. He started working for the NAAY in December 1980. Trisha Stovold was appointed Festival Administrator, and later, Christopher Bush Bailey as Production Manager.
The first thing Madhav did, having secured the Commonwealth Institute in South Kensington – its theatre, the Jehangir Room, the Board Room, the Main Gallery, & the Central Podium – from 10 am to midnight, largely through the assistance of Jevan Brandon Thomas, for the whole week of October 5, 1981, was to commission Biman Mullick to design a logo, and to form a supervisory Festival Committee, which finally consisted of the following individuals:
Dame Peggy Ashcroft
(actor), Robert Atkins (Arts Director, Commonwealth Institute), David Barlow (Secretary to the BBC), Belkis Bhagani (Copy/Pictures Editor of ‘Broadcast’), Mark Bonham Carter (Chairman, Race Relations Board), Anthony Cornish (Drama Supervisor, Capital Radio), Mrs HOH Coulson OBE (President, Women’s Council), Dr Rochi U Hingorani (International Cultural Exchange), Mrs Roshan Horabin (first Asian Probation Officer in the UK), Nazir Hussein (NAAY), Richard Imison (Head of Scripts, BBC Radio), Ravi Jain (NAAY), Viram Jasani (Musician), Sundar Kabadi (Doyen of Indian journalists in the UK), Miriam Karlin OBE(actor), Shaukat N Khan (NAAY), Mrs David Lean (Arts Patron & wife of the celebrated film director), John Mckenzie (Director, Commonwealth Arts Association), Zia Mohyeddin (actor/producer),
HE Dr VA Seyid Muhammed (High Commissioner for India), Suresh Mulani (NAAY),
Pushpinder Myrpurrey (NAAY), Dr Bhikhu Parekh (Hull University), Swraj Paul (Asian
industrialist), Peter Plouviez (General Secretary, British Equity), Dr IP Singh (Deputy High Commissioner for India), HE AR Shams-ud Doha (High Commissioner for Bangladesh), Kenneth Thompson CMG (Retired Director, Commonwealth Institute), & Lord Willis (writer/initiator of ‘Dixon of Dock Green’).
During that week the following performances, workshops, seminars etc. were presented in the different spaces and at different times:
Joint Stock Theatre Group and The Royal Court Theatre’s production of BORDERLINE by Hanif Kureishi
, directed by Max Stafford Clark, designed by Peter Hartwell, with David Beames, Vincent Ebrahim, Deborah Findlay, Nizwar Karanj, Lesley Manville, & Rita Wolf in the cast.
Ensemble Dream Tiger’s production of East-West 3, directed by Paul Kriwaczek (Producer of ‘Parosi’ on BBC TV), narration by Zohra Segal, with Margaret Field (soprano), Kathryn Lukas (Chinese and European flutes), Rohan de Sa Ram (Kandyan drum & cello), John Mayer (Tanpura & Violin), Peter Hill (Piano), Douglas Young (piano, percussion & musical director). The programme contained premieres of 6 Ragamalas, and the world premiere of ‘Swapna Bagh’, both composed by John Mayer (an Indian Christian).
The Old Vic Youth Theatre’s production of BLIND EDGE, devised for the Festival, through improvisation and discussion, in collaboration with Karim Alrawi
, directed by Lucy Parker, lighting by Graham Cull, with Ashraf Mahmud Neswar, Riffat Bahar, Richard Bench, Howard Brown, Shreela Ghosh, Giselle Glasman, Kola Ilori, Edward John, Cathy Kilcoyne, Alphonse Mendy, Eddie Ofusu-Osei, Michael Quain, Mick Roche, Latifat Saka, Raymond Stevenson, & Paul Tierney in the cast.
A production of MOWGLI, adapted from Kipling, with music specially composed by John Mayer, directed by Sharad Keskar, and performed by 75 children of all races from a London school.
A production by Shilpi Gosthi of RAMAYANA, with a cast of some 42 mainly Bengali singers and dancers, accompanied by 7 musicians on various instruments.
A production by the GRAEAE THEATRE COMPANY, a professional company of disabled actors, starring Nabil Shaban (an Asian quadriplegic).
A performance, by the Tai-Shen Chinese Play Association of Liverpool, of Folk Dance and Mime ballet.
There was a dance performance accompanied by audio visual effects by Flora and Ashvin Gatha, and a mime performance & workshop by Wayne Pritchett.
A BOOK FAIR was organized by Mariam Shah and the Shakti Book House.
Exhibitions of paintings and photographs, mainly organized by Indian Artists Uk, included work by Prafull Dave, Yashwant Mali, Prafulla Mohanti, Arvind Oza, Lancelot Ribeiro, David Richardson, Mala Soi, Suresh Vedak, Gurmeet Singh Virdee, Ibrahim Wagh, & Mohammad Zakir.
Cello concert by Anup Kumar Biswas, accompanied by Robert Bottone, sitar concerts by Viram Jasani & Clem Alford, music workshops & performances by Keshav Sathe, Ravichandra, Markandey Mishra, Keith Waithe, Isaac Tagoe, Hilton Leite, Nawazish Ali Khan, Amancio da Silva, Rohan de Sa Ram, John Mayer, Vara Kartigeyan, Tripti Das and others.
Workshops in Bharatnatyam dancing by Surya Kumari, Chitra Sundaram & Shreela Ghosh, and on Manipuri & Odissi dancing by Pratap & Priya Pawar. There were others in Rabindra Sangeet & Ras Garba by Lalitha Ahmed, Mehndi by Meena Patel, and Storytelling by Niru Desai (Harrow Asian Women's Association). Also, there was one by the Asian Women's Standing Conference.
Lecture by Biman Mullick, an exhibition of Phulkari together with a lecture by Nasim Ali, Seminar on immigrants in English literature chaired by Prabhu Guptara, and one on ethnic minorities in the performing arts chaired by Madhav, etc.
There were performances by S.S.Kohli’s group from Galsgow, Seva Dhaaliwal’s group from the Midlands, Rajinder Singh Suthar, Sanat Sinah, Pandit Das Mishra, 11 year old Sanjay Sharma, Sheila Chandra and Indipop with Monsoon, Asian Artists Association, Jazira, Jai Jalaram Arts Group, The L.I.F.E. Foundation, & United Artists Association.
On the last night Madhav presented a Lifetime Achievement Award to Zohra Segal, and in his citation, referred to her as the ‘Dame Sybil Thorndike of Indian actors in the UK’.
Announced at the Festival was a playwriting competition, initiated by Madhav and Actors Unlimited and sponsored by Anthony Cornish, Drama Supervisor of Capital Radio, and the NAAY, for plays in English by or about Asians in Britain, the closing date for the receipt of entries being July 31, 1982, as clearly stated in the printed leaflet. Karim Alrawi won the first prize for a play written by anyone over the age of 18, which was why Actors Unlimited revived his play ALIENS in 1983.
At the Festival and at Upstream Theatre, Madhav directed (for Actors Unlimited) OUR OWN PEOPLE by David Edgar, designed by David Roger, Lighting by Graham Cull, and with Tim Brierley, Deirdre Costello, Shelagh Fraser, Janet Key, Art Malik, Zohra Segal, Heronimo Sehmi, Dino Shafeek, Terence Soall, and David Yip in the cast. Production Manager was Christopher Bush Bailey, Sound was by Mic Poole and the Stage Management team included Mary Churchward , Heronimo Sehmi, & Colin Reese (who was also Assistant Director). This was made possible by a special grant from British Equity for Actors Unlimited.
Also in 1981, at the Churchill Theatre in Bromley, in partnership with Ian Watt Smith (the Artistic Director of this venue), and Ken McReddie, Madhav directed JOURNEY’S END by R.C. SHERIFF, with a cast that included: Robert Addie, Harold Goodwin, Simon Green, David Gwillim, & Ian McCulloch.
In 1983, at the Upstream Theatre, Actors Unlimited presented HEDDA IN INDIA, a version of Henrik Ibsen’s ‘Hedda Gabler’, adapted and directed by Madhav. It was designed by Peter Ling, and in the cast were Donald Gee, Jamila Massey, Raad Rawi, Jenny Seagrove, Zohra Segal, Josephine Welcome, & Tariq Yunus. Music was by Anup Kumar Biswas. Backstage team included Christopher Bush Bailey, Derek Chabrol, Graham Cull, Raj Patel, Colin Small, & Navin Thapar.
In 1983, also at this venue and on tour, Madhav directed a revival of ALIENS by Karim Alrawi. This time, they had Shelagh Fraser, George Irving, & Kevork Malikyan in the cast. It was designed by Peter Ling, had lighting by Bosco O’Toole, with a stage management team of Derek Chabrol, Raj Patel & Colin Small. This was part of a double bill that included APPLY, APPLY, NO REPLY by Dilip Hiro, directed by Tony Wredden, designed by Suresh Vedak, lighting by Bosco O’Toole, with Derek Chabrol, Lyndam Gregory, Raad Rawi, & Dev Sagoo in the cast, and the same stage management team as above.
Madhav has also directed at drama schools, the last production being at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama when proceeds from box office takings at this final year showcase were donated, at his behest, to the Save London Theatres campaign.
Madhav has lectured on equal opportunities as part of a course in Arts Administration Studies, run by John Pick and Peter Stark, at the City University, London.
Madhav was Supervisor/Coordinator, Community Arts Programme – National Association for Asian Youth, Southall.
(née Venkataraman) the Economist,who whilst at Cambridge University, wrote an acclaimed thesis on the caste system, and Raghavan Iyer (Rhodes Scholar, President of the Oxford Union, Isis Idol, Oxford Fellow and Professor at the University of Santa Barbara). Madhav is the uncle of the academic, travel writer & novelist Pico Iyer
and Ramachandra Guha (who writes on cricket, the environment and politics, and has also been awarded the Padma Bhushan). Madhav, who has always seen himself as the 'white sheep', so to speak, of the family, was formerly married to the British actress Jenny Seagrove
. He was labelled by the judge presiding over their divorce case as her Svengali
and accused him of "using his wife as his crutch". His frequent calls to her during their separation was "harrowing" to her then partner, Michael Winner
. His current theatrical agents are Ken McReddie Associates, London.
St. Joseph's College, Bangalore
St. Joseph's College , Bangalore is one of the oldest colleges in the State of Karnataka with a history of more than 125 years behind it. It imparts graduate, post-graduate and research education while searching, renewing and expanding itself, attempting to be ever relevant to the changing...
, the Scottish Church College, Calcutta, and Fergusson College
Fergusson College
Fergusson College is a degree college in western India, situated in the city of Pune. It was founded in 1885 by the Deccan Education Society and at that time was the first privately governed college in India. It is named after Sir James Fergusson, the Governor of Bombay, who donated a then...
, Poona, before winning a merit scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art is a drama school located in London, United Kingdom. It is generally regarded as one of the most renowned drama schools in the world, and is one of the oldest drama schools in the United Kingdom, having been founded in 1904.RADA is an affiliate school of the...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
Early life
He was born in Calcutta, where his father K. S. Sitaram Iyer lived for many years in Hastings, Calcutta 22. Since his mother died soon after he was born, Madhav was first raised in Bangalore by his grandfather S.S. Iyer.Theatre
It all started with touring Shakespeare alongside Felicity Kendal and her parents, Geoffrey KendalGeoffrey Kendal
Geoffrey Kendal was an English actor-manager.Born Richard Geoffrey Bragg in Kendal, Westmorland, he took the name of his place of birth as his surname. He married the actress Laura Liddell...
and Laura Liddell, followed by a merit scholarship to the RADA.
Work in theatre includes The Man of Mode (RNT Olivier), Tales from Ferozesha Baag (RNT Studio workshops and readings), Prince Of Delhi Palace (RNT Studio), The Massacre (Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds), The Great Theatre of the World (Arcola), Deadeye (Soho Theatre/UK tour/Birmingham Rep), The Accused (Haymarket/UK tour/Theatre Royal Windsor), Indian Ink (Aldwych), Last Dance at Dum Dum (New Ambassadors/UK tour), Behzti and Blithe Spirit (Birmingham Rep), Calcutta Kosher, Worlds Apart, House Of The Sun (Theatre Royal Stratford East), Gulliver’s Travels (Arts), No One Was Saved (Royal Court Upstairs), Baby Love (Soho Poly), High Diplomacy (Westminster), Romeo and Juliet (Shaw/Edinburgh Festival/Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds/Hull Truck /USA), Not Just An Asian Babe (Watermans/Oxford Arms), Untold Secret Of Aspi (Cockpit/Watermans), The Importance Of Being Neutral (ICA), Romeo and Juliet (Albany Empire), Twelfth Night and The Hollow Crown (Theatre Royal Lincoln/tour), Thérèse Raquin (Nottingham Playhouse), Crazyhorse (Bristol New Vic/UK tour), Fiddler On The Roof (Theatre Royal Nottingham/UK tour), The King and I (Edinburgh Playhouse/UK tour)), Twelfth Night (Dundee Rep), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night and The Proposal (UK schools tour), England Our England, Captain Carvalho, and Night Conspirators (Victoria Theatre Salford), Hindle Wakes, How Are You Johnny?, A Murder Has Been Arranged, Alfie, Mr Kettle and Mrs Moon, and An Inspector Calls (Casino Theatre Southport), Othello, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, The Merchant of Venice, Henry V (tour to India, Singapore, Malaysia, Sarawak, Bruneii, N.Borneo and Hong Kong), and the title role in Hamlet (The Howff), directed by Joseph O’Conor who had himself played the role in Sir Donald Wolfit’s Company.
Television
TV includes Going PostalTerry Pratchett's Going Postal
Terry Pratchett's Going Postal is a two-part television adaptation of the book of the same name by Terry Pratchett, adapted by Richard Kurti and Bev Doyle and produced by The Mob, which was first broadcast on Sky1, and in high definition on Sky1 HD, at the end of May 2010.It is the third in a...
, Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
, Doctors, Casualty, Ashes to Ashes, Reverse Psychology, Grease Monkeys, Doctors And Nurses, Dalziel and Pascoe, Holby City, Dream Team, Amongst Barbarians, Doctor Who
Frontier in Space
Frontier in Space is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from February 24 to March 31, 1973...
, Trial and Retribution, McCallum, Fighting Back, Inspector Alleyn, The Rector’s Wife, Tygo Road, Cardiac Arrest, Shalom Salaam, Black And Blue, Medics, Boon, This Office Life, The Bill, South Of The Border, King And Castle, Tandoori Nights, Old Men At The Zoo, Maybury, Minder, Target, The Road To 1984, Blunt Instrument, Cold Warrior, Sarah, Looking For Clancy, The Regiment, Imperial Palace, Adam Smith, The Brahmin Widow, Crown Court, Escape, First Lady, Moonbase 3
Moonbase 3
Moonbase 3 is a British science fiction television programme that ran for six episodes in 1973. It was a co-production between the BBC, 20th Century Fox and the American ABC network...
, Anything But The Woods, Rogues Rock, Kipling, Z-Cars, The Moonstone, Uncle Tulip, and The Newcomers.
Films
Films include EntrapmentEntrapment (film)
Entrapment is a 1999 American caper film directed by Jon Amiel and starring Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones.-Plot:Virginia "Gin" Baker is an investigator for Waverly Insurance. Robert "Mac" MacDougal is an international art thief. A priceless Rembrandt painting is stolen from an office one...
, Such a Long Journey, The Gathering, Shadey, The Blue Tower, Wild West, Innocents, The Awakening, It's a Wonderful Afterlife
It's a Wonderful Afterlife
It's a Wonderful Afterlife is a 2010 British comedy film directed by Gurinder Chadha. The screenplay centers on an Indian mother whose obsession with marrying off her daughter leads her into the realm of serial murder. It was filmed primarily in English, with some Hindi and Punjabi dialogue...
and East is East
East is East (film)
East Is East is a 1999 British black comedy/drama film, written by Ayub Khan-Din and directed by Damien O'Donnell. It is set in a British household of mixed-ethnicity, with a British Pakistani father and an English mother in Salford, Lancashire, in 1971...
.
Radio
Radio drama includes The Archers, An Enemy of the People (by Henrik Ibsen adapted by John Foley & Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti), The Curiosities of the Egyptian Hall – The Great Mephisto (by Tony Liddington), Midnight's ChildrenMidnight's Children
Midnight's Children is a 1981 book by Salman Rushdie about India's transition from British colonialism to independence and the partition of India. It is considered an example of postcolonial literature and magical realism...
(by Salman Rushdie adapted by Rukhsana Ahmed), A House for Mr Biswas
A House for Mr Biswas
A House for Mr Biswas is a 1961 novel by V. S. Naipaul, significant as Naipaul's first work to achieve acclaim worldwide. It is the story of Mr Mohun Biswas, an Indo-Trinidadian who continually strives for success and mostly fails, who marries into the Tulsi family only to find himself dominated by...
(by V.S. Naipaul), The Painter of Signs by R.K. Narayan (adapted by William Ash), Stowaway, A Rain of Stones( by Wole Soyinka), The God at the Gate, The Banker’s Tale, The Black Rock, The Dreams of Tipu Sultan, The Goondas of Gopinagar, Scorching Winds, The Great Sentinel and the Great Soul, Grave Affairs (by John Matthew), End of the Line(by Guy Roderick & Peter Cox) , Tughlaq (by Girish Karnad), Captain Colenzo’s Last Voyage, My Enemy My Friend (by Margaret Bhatty), The Panacea (by Amina Osman), Race of the Dugout Canoes (by Richard Edmunds), My Beautiful Launderette Off License Cash and Carry, The Indian Gentleman (by Terry James), Hardly Touching (by Neil Biswas), Swine (by Diane Samuels), The Dolphinarium (by Steve Walker), Heer Ranjha( by Deepak Verma), Singing and Dancing in Kanpur (by David Mowat), The Bandit Queen
Phoolan Devi
Phoolan Devi , popularly known as the "Bandit Queen", was an Indian dacoit and later a politician. After being gang-raped by some upper-caste members of her gang, Phoolan Devi turned a bandit, and killed 22 upper-caste villagers in 1981. Following this, she became notorious across India as a bandit...
(by Deepak Verma), Hanuman’s Child (by Nandita Ghose), Asha (by Tanika Gupta), Kahani Apni Apni, Chota( by Jean Binney), Nightrunners of Bengal ( by John Masters), Broomhouse Reach, Flimi Filmi Inspector Ghote (by H.R.F.Keating), Brides Are Not For Burning, Laura and the Angel, We the Accused, An Affair of Honour, Butterfly Hunt (by Mathew Solon) and Waggoners Walk.
Talking books
Talking books include Kim (unabridged & abridged versions), The Jungle Books, Rikki Tikki Tavi & other Kipling stories, and Hullaballoo in the Guava Orchard.Work as a theatre Director/Producer
Throughout his career he has intermittently directed, produced, and initiated new projects.The most recent was directing the rehearsed reading of a new play ‘Prince of Delhi Palace’ by Ravi Kapoor, at the National Theatre Studio.
He was the founding Artistic Director of Actors Unlimited - an idea of his in response to what he saw, and still sees, as unfair discrimination in the British theatre. He simply wanted to give actors more control over their talents, and he was determined that all casting should be done irrespective of race, colour, creed, political or sexual persuasion.
The people, who agreed to be Patrons of Actors Unlimited, were Lord Chitnis, Mr Maneck Dalal, Sir Alec Guinness, Sir Peter Hall, The High Commissioner for India, Lord Jenkins, Ms Miriam Karlin OBE, Mr Swraj Paul, Dame Flora Robson.
The first full season of plays was produced by him at THE HOWFF in Primrose Hill in 1973, in partnership with Margaret Morris (a Granada TV Drama Producer) and MS Productions (which had been formed by them because Ms Morris was not an actor) at the above venue. This season of 6 productions was in association with Roy Guest (a music industry executive, who had the lease of the venue) and Seamus Ewens (who was in charge of the bar and catering). Madhav found all the plays, largely thanks to the help of Richard Imison, Head of Scripts, BBC Radio, and Madhav also found all the directors, designers, stage management, and actors.
Everyone got paid the same. The Company received no public funding and the entire season paid for itself from takings at the box office, bar and restaurant, and by one production transferring to the West End.
Each production rehearsed for 3 weeks and ran for a minimum of 2–3 weeks, and everyone was employed on no less than Equity's minimum terms and conditions.
The productions were all favourably reviewed in the trade and national press.
The productions in this season were:
(a) WAIT TILL THE SON SHINES NELLIE by Lynda Marchal (now Lynda La Plante), directed by Nicholas Barter, with a cast that included Jack Allen, Laurence Carter, Constantin de Goguel, & Barbara Keogh.
(b) KINGDOM COTTAGE by Bill Lyons, directed by Jane Graham (now Jane Morgan), and the cast included Richard O’Callaghan, Emily Richard, & Malcolm Hayes.
(c) PUNCH & JUDY STORIES by David Fitzsimmons, directed by Jonathan Hales, with John Alderton, Paul Angelis, Pauline Collins & Christine Hargreaves in the cast. This production, under the new title of JUDIES, was transferred in due course by Michael White and Robert Fox, in association with Madhav, to the Comedy Theatre in the West End, and was hailed at the time as creating a bit of theatrical history as the first production to do so from the 'fringe' with the same cast, designer, director, stage management etc.
(d) THE LOVE OF LADY MARGARET by Bill Morrison, directed by Margaret Morris, and in the cast were Diana Fairfax, Seymour Matthews, Morris Perry, Stassia Stakis & Katharine Stark.
(e) HAMLET by William Shakespeare, directed by Joseph O’Conor, and the cast included Ronald Forfar, Constantin de Goguel, David Graham, Chris Hunter, Jonathan Newth, Joseph O’Conor, Juan Moreno, Barbara Shelley, John Somerville, David Stern, Carolyn Taylor, and Madhav in the title role.
(f) A double bill of HOME LIFE by Courteline & RESPECTABLE WOMEN by Feydeau, translated and adapted by David Cohen, directed by Roderick Graham, and the cast included Christopher Benjamin, Raymond Graham, Christina Greatrex, Jo Kendall, & Penelope Lee.
All the productions, barring the Shakespeare obviously, were World or London Stage Premieres. Throughout the season, the Sets & Costumes Designer was Cecilia Brereton, the Technical Manager was Hubs Hubback, Lighting was by Roger Ackroyd and Stephen Batiste, and the Stage Management Team was Judy Garrett, Kathy Marechal & Kerry Ross.
In 1974, Actors Unlimited presented another season of London Stage Premieres. Again Madhav found all the plays, the directors, the actors etc. He was assisted in all the administration by two actor colleagues, Amanda Cuthbert and Geoffrey Larder, and received invaluable support from the West End Theatre Producer John Gale.
The productions were:
(a) THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING NEUTRAL by Royce Ryton, designed & directed by Darrol Blake, with Gareth Forwood, Derek Fowlds, Vivien Heilbron, Anthony Sharp, Eleanor Summerfield, Marilyn Taylerson & Madhav among the cast.
(b) SAM SLADE IS MISSING by Bill Morrison, directed by Valerie Hanson, with James Ellis among the cast.
(c) THE IRON HARP, written and directed by Joseph O'Conor, with Tim Barker, John Castle, Clem Davis, Raymond Graham, James Hayes, David Horovitch, Geoffrey Larder, Maureen O’Brien, Dick Sullivan, Jeremy Young, & Harry Webster in the cast.
(d) AWAY FROM IT ALL by Peter King, directed by Alex Marshall, with Ann Bell, Rodney Bewes, Peter Jeffrey, Wilfred Pickles (later replaced, because of illness, by Colin Douglas), & Zena Walker in the cast.
The backstage team for this season involved Hubs Hubback as the Technical Director, Roger Ackroyd for lighting, designers included Mary Moore and Stephanie England, and the Stage Management team was Susanna Dawson, Tim Gale, Lindsay Garforth, Chris Hunter & Carolyn Taylor.
The next few years were spent arguing with the Arts Council - who were only interested in funding the setting up of an all Asian theatre company, a concept that Madhav was opposed to as the only strategy - because of his instinctive revulsion of separatism, his commitment to professional standards, and his belief that we all, irrespective of colour of skin, should challenge unfair discrimination in different ways, and also from within the mainstream. Sadly, there were many who were opposed to this and they came from the Left as well as from the Right of the political spectrum. They, some of them Asians, believed in separate development as the only answer, and thought all notions of artistic standards and trades union terms of employment to be a bourgeois imposition. With hindsight, one can see that they deliberately confused the funders by conflating the argument about supporting ethnic artists in ethnic art forms with supporting artists of ethnic backgrounds who wished the freedom to pursue work in whatever art forms they chose. The ACGB did not fund Actors Unlimited for many years, refusing even seed money to constitute it as a legal entity, and finally only gave a guarantee against loss for the project in 1983, which was also supported by the GLAA, the GLC, and an Emergency Theatre Fund administered by British Equity.
Paradoxically, the Arts Council asked the Wakefield Tricycle Theatre
Tricycle Theatre
The Tricycle Theatre is located on Kilburn High Road in Kilburn in the London Borough of Brent, England. During the last 30 years, the Tricycle has been presenting plays reflecting the cultural diversity of its community; in particular Black, Irish, Jewish, Asian and South African works, as well as...
Company to take Madhav on board as co-Artistic Director with Shirley Barrie & Kenneth Chubb, to inject professional standards and Trades Union values into their work.
In partnership with and for the Wakefield Tricycle Theatre Company, in 1977, Madhav directed CONFESSION FEVER by Terry James, at the King’s Head in Islington, designed by Peter Ling & lighting by Tim Ball, with John Castle, Julie Dawn Cole, Douglas Fielding, Julia Goodman & Maureen O’Brien in the cast.
In 1978, again in partnership with and for the Wakefield Tricycle Theatre Company, Madhav directed A DAY FOR EVER by Michael Sharp, at the Open Space Theatre in Tottenham Court Road, designed by Jane Smith and lighting by Tim Ball, with Keith Barron, June Brown, Jill Dixon, Marion Fiddick, Harold Goodwin, Geoffrey Larder, Lynne Miller, Stella Tanner, & Royston Tickner in the cast.
Madhav also directed THE MID-ATLANTIC CABLE CAR STATION by Terry James at the Terrace Theatre of the ICA in The Mall.
After he left the Wakefield Tricycle Theatre Company (having helped them secure architect’s plans for a new Tricycle Theatre building, and obtaining Miriam Karlin as one of the patrons), Madhav carried on working as an actor and an occasional freelance theatre director, continued with his Equity activities, whilst all the time trying to gain support for developing and continuing the principles of non-discriminatory work.
In early 1981, in partnership with Verity Bargate & Bill Ash (who were the Artistic Director & Literary Manager of the Soho Poly), Madhav directed ALIENS by Karim Alrawi
Karim Alrawi
Karim Alrawi is a British/ Canadian/ Egyptian writer born in Alexandria, Egypt. His family emigrated to England then to Canada. Alrawi graduated from University College, University of London and the , England...
at this venue, designed by Dee Greenwood, lighting by Graham Cull, Stage Management of Mike Freer & Yvonne Sellins, and with Carol Gillies, Geoffrey Larder & Art Malik in the cast.
During 1979 and 1980, in partnership with Richard Everett, Estelle Daniel, David Loyn, and the Upstream Theatre Club, the Rev David Wickert, and Anne Hopkinson, Madhav directed two productions at St Andrew’s Church in Short Street.
They were:
THE PROMISE by Alexei Arbuzov, designed by David Roger and lit by Christopher Bush Bailey, with Polly March and Stephen Lyons among the cast.
SCHUBERT by Ronald Duncan, designed by David Roger and lit by Christopher Bush Bailey, with Jenny Seagrove, Royston Tickner & Michael Wolf in the cast.
It was in the autumn of 1980 that Madhav was introduced to Ravi Jain, the General Secretary of the National Association of Asian Youth, by Tariq Younis. Ravi offered him a job, which Madhav accepted on certain conditions. He was to be Artistic Director of an Asian Festival (not a Youth Festival as in previous years, but a more high profile event showcasing British Asian professionals, in which he would involve some Asian youth, especially for education, training and development) in 1981, for which he would be paid a small salary and given access to a room in their Southall offices, a telephone and an assistant of his choosing. Madhav would have total artistic control, once a policy document that he would submit was approved by the NEC of the NAAY, and Actors Unlimited would become a project of the NAAY (already an established charity, thereby making it easier to attract funds to develop AU’s work). Also, Madhav could continue to work as a freelance actor and theatre director. He started working for the NAAY in December 1980. Trisha Stovold was appointed Festival Administrator, and later, Christopher Bush Bailey as Production Manager.
The first thing Madhav did, having secured the Commonwealth Institute in South Kensington – its theatre, the Jehangir Room, the Board Room, the Main Gallery, & the Central Podium – from 10 am to midnight, largely through the assistance of Jevan Brandon Thomas, for the whole week of October 5, 1981, was to commission Biman Mullick to design a logo, and to form a supervisory Festival Committee, which finally consisted of the following individuals:
Dame Peggy Ashcroft
Peggy Ashcroft
Dame Peggy Ashcroft, DBE was an English actress.-Early years:Born as Edith Margaret Emily Ashcroft in Croydon, Ashcroft attended the Woodford School, Croydon and the Central School of Speech and Drama...
(actor), Robert Atkins (Arts Director, Commonwealth Institute), David Barlow (Secretary to the BBC), Belkis Bhagani (Copy/Pictures Editor of ‘Broadcast’), Mark Bonham Carter (Chairman, Race Relations Board), Anthony Cornish (Drama Supervisor, Capital Radio), Mrs HOH Coulson OBE (President, Women’s Council), Dr Rochi U Hingorani (International Cultural Exchange), Mrs Roshan Horabin (first Asian Probation Officer in the UK), Nazir Hussein (NAAY), Richard Imison (Head of Scripts, BBC Radio), Ravi Jain (NAAY), Viram Jasani (Musician), Sundar Kabadi (Doyen of Indian journalists in the UK), Miriam Karlin OBE(actor), Shaukat N Khan (NAAY), Mrs David Lean (Arts Patron & wife of the celebrated film director), John Mckenzie (Director, Commonwealth Arts Association), Zia Mohyeddin (actor/producer),
HE Dr VA Seyid Muhammed (High Commissioner for India), Suresh Mulani (NAAY),
Pushpinder Myrpurrey (NAAY), Dr Bhikhu Parekh (Hull University), Swraj Paul (Asian
industrialist), Peter Plouviez (General Secretary, British Equity), Dr IP Singh (Deputy High Commissioner for India), HE AR Shams-ud Doha (High Commissioner for Bangladesh), Kenneth Thompson CMG (Retired Director, Commonwealth Institute), & Lord Willis (writer/initiator of ‘Dixon of Dock Green’).
During that week the following performances, workshops, seminars etc. were presented in the different spaces and at different times:
Joint Stock Theatre Group and The Royal Court Theatre’s production of BORDERLINE by Hanif Kureishi
Hanif Kureishi
Hanif Kureishi CBE is an English playwright, screenwriter and filmmaker, novelist and short story writer. The themes of his work have touched on topics of race, nationalism, immigration, and sexuality...
, directed by Max Stafford Clark, designed by Peter Hartwell, with David Beames, Vincent Ebrahim, Deborah Findlay, Nizwar Karanj, Lesley Manville, & Rita Wolf in the cast.
Ensemble Dream Tiger’s production of East-West 3, directed by Paul Kriwaczek (Producer of ‘Parosi’ on BBC TV), narration by Zohra Segal, with Margaret Field (soprano), Kathryn Lukas (Chinese and European flutes), Rohan de Sa Ram (Kandyan drum & cello), John Mayer (Tanpura & Violin), Peter Hill (Piano), Douglas Young (piano, percussion & musical director). The programme contained premieres of 6 Ragamalas, and the world premiere of ‘Swapna Bagh’, both composed by John Mayer (an Indian Christian).
The Old Vic Youth Theatre’s production of BLIND EDGE, devised for the Festival, through improvisation and discussion, in collaboration with Karim Alrawi
Karim Alrawi
Karim Alrawi is a British/ Canadian/ Egyptian writer born in Alexandria, Egypt. His family emigrated to England then to Canada. Alrawi graduated from University College, University of London and the , England...
, directed by Lucy Parker, lighting by Graham Cull, with Ashraf Mahmud Neswar, Riffat Bahar, Richard Bench, Howard Brown, Shreela Ghosh, Giselle Glasman, Kola Ilori, Edward John, Cathy Kilcoyne, Alphonse Mendy, Eddie Ofusu-Osei, Michael Quain, Mick Roche, Latifat Saka, Raymond Stevenson, & Paul Tierney in the cast.
A production of MOWGLI, adapted from Kipling, with music specially composed by John Mayer, directed by Sharad Keskar, and performed by 75 children of all races from a London school.
A production by Shilpi Gosthi of RAMAYANA, with a cast of some 42 mainly Bengali singers and dancers, accompanied by 7 musicians on various instruments.
A production by the GRAEAE THEATRE COMPANY, a professional company of disabled actors, starring Nabil Shaban (an Asian quadriplegic).
A performance, by the Tai-Shen Chinese Play Association of Liverpool, of Folk Dance and Mime ballet.
There was a dance performance accompanied by audio visual effects by Flora and Ashvin Gatha, and a mime performance & workshop by Wayne Pritchett.
A BOOK FAIR was organized by Mariam Shah and the Shakti Book House.
Exhibitions of paintings and photographs, mainly organized by Indian Artists Uk, included work by Prafull Dave, Yashwant Mali, Prafulla Mohanti, Arvind Oza, Lancelot Ribeiro, David Richardson, Mala Soi, Suresh Vedak, Gurmeet Singh Virdee, Ibrahim Wagh, & Mohammad Zakir.
Cello concert by Anup Kumar Biswas, accompanied by Robert Bottone, sitar concerts by Viram Jasani & Clem Alford, music workshops & performances by Keshav Sathe, Ravichandra, Markandey Mishra, Keith Waithe, Isaac Tagoe, Hilton Leite, Nawazish Ali Khan, Amancio da Silva, Rohan de Sa Ram, John Mayer, Vara Kartigeyan, Tripti Das and others.
Workshops in Bharatnatyam dancing by Surya Kumari, Chitra Sundaram & Shreela Ghosh, and on Manipuri & Odissi dancing by Pratap & Priya Pawar. There were others in Rabindra Sangeet & Ras Garba by Lalitha Ahmed, Mehndi by Meena Patel, and Storytelling by Niru Desai (Harrow Asian Women's Association). Also, there was one by the Asian Women's Standing Conference.
Lecture by Biman Mullick, an exhibition of Phulkari together with a lecture by Nasim Ali, Seminar on immigrants in English literature chaired by Prabhu Guptara, and one on ethnic minorities in the performing arts chaired by Madhav, etc.
There were performances by S.S.Kohli’s group from Galsgow, Seva Dhaaliwal’s group from the Midlands, Rajinder Singh Suthar, Sanat Sinah, Pandit Das Mishra, 11 year old Sanjay Sharma, Sheila Chandra and Indipop with Monsoon, Asian Artists Association, Jazira, Jai Jalaram Arts Group, The L.I.F.E. Foundation, & United Artists Association.
On the last night Madhav presented a Lifetime Achievement Award to Zohra Segal, and in his citation, referred to her as the ‘Dame Sybil Thorndike of Indian actors in the UK’.
Announced at the Festival was a playwriting competition, initiated by Madhav and Actors Unlimited and sponsored by Anthony Cornish, Drama Supervisor of Capital Radio, and the NAAY, for plays in English by or about Asians in Britain, the closing date for the receipt of entries being July 31, 1982, as clearly stated in the printed leaflet. Karim Alrawi won the first prize for a play written by anyone over the age of 18, which was why Actors Unlimited revived his play ALIENS in 1983.
At the Festival and at Upstream Theatre, Madhav directed (for Actors Unlimited) OUR OWN PEOPLE by David Edgar, designed by David Roger, Lighting by Graham Cull, and with Tim Brierley, Deirdre Costello, Shelagh Fraser, Janet Key, Art Malik, Zohra Segal, Heronimo Sehmi, Dino Shafeek, Terence Soall, and David Yip in the cast. Production Manager was Christopher Bush Bailey, Sound was by Mic Poole and the Stage Management team included Mary Churchward , Heronimo Sehmi, & Colin Reese (who was also Assistant Director). This was made possible by a special grant from British Equity for Actors Unlimited.
Also in 1981, at the Churchill Theatre in Bromley, in partnership with Ian Watt Smith (the Artistic Director of this venue), and Ken McReddie, Madhav directed JOURNEY’S END by R.C. SHERIFF, with a cast that included: Robert Addie, Harold Goodwin, Simon Green, David Gwillim, & Ian McCulloch.
In 1983, at the Upstream Theatre, Actors Unlimited presented HEDDA IN INDIA, a version of Henrik Ibsen’s ‘Hedda Gabler’, adapted and directed by Madhav. It was designed by Peter Ling, and in the cast were Donald Gee, Jamila Massey, Raad Rawi, Jenny Seagrove, Zohra Segal, Josephine Welcome, & Tariq Yunus. Music was by Anup Kumar Biswas. Backstage team included Christopher Bush Bailey, Derek Chabrol, Graham Cull, Raj Patel, Colin Small, & Navin Thapar.
In 1983, also at this venue and on tour, Madhav directed a revival of ALIENS by Karim Alrawi. This time, they had Shelagh Fraser, George Irving, & Kevork Malikyan in the cast. It was designed by Peter Ling, had lighting by Bosco O’Toole, with a stage management team of Derek Chabrol, Raj Patel & Colin Small. This was part of a double bill that included APPLY, APPLY, NO REPLY by Dilip Hiro, directed by Tony Wredden, designed by Suresh Vedak, lighting by Bosco O’Toole, with Derek Chabrol, Lyndam Gregory, Raad Rawi, & Dev Sagoo in the cast, and the same stage management team as above.
Madhav has also directed at drama schools, the last production being at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama when proceeds from box office takings at this final year showcase were donated, at his behest, to the Save London Theatres campaign.
Other work
Varied work by Madhav in Executive Management and Professionals’ Training Seminars and Workshops in such things as Effective Inter-Personal Skills, Negotiating Skills, Communication Skills, Telephone Consultations, Breaking Bad News, etc. for diverse organisations such as Allen & Overy (City Solicitors), Thomas Cook & Sons, Pearl Assurance, Sedgwick Insurance Group, The Rank Organisation, St Bartholomew’s, the Royal London and Addenbrooke’s Hospitals, the RSPCA, and the Home Office.Madhav has lectured on equal opportunities as part of a course in Arts Administration Studies, run by John Pick and Peter Stark, at the City University, London.
Madhav was Supervisor/Coordinator, Community Arts Programme – National Association for Asian Youth, Southall.
Voluntary Work
- Member and Chairman on occasion of the London Theatre Council
- Member and Chairman on occasion of the Provincial Theatre Council
- Member of the Community Arts Committee of the Greater London Council
- Member of the Drama Panel of the Greater London Arts Association
- Member(elected) of the Council and Executive of British Equity, as well as of several Negotiating Parties and Committees
- Patron of the Playwrights Co-operative
- Founding initiator of Jobs Grapevine
- Member of the Ethnic Arts Steering Group of the GLAA
- Patron of Theatre in Exile
- First interviewer of Enoch Powell after his infamous speech
- Representative of British Equity to the Trades Union Congress, attended by the then Prime Minister James Callaghan, when Madhav made a televised speech in support of the minimum wage
- Home Office invited Madhav to be an advocate for the Asian community & organisations, at a meeting with the then PM Margaret Thatcher, also attended by Sir George Young, Michael Mates MP & Denis Thatcher
- Chairman and/or keynote speaker at conferences organised by bodies such as the Commission for Racial Equality on Ethnic Arts and Artists
- Writer of several pamphlets for Equity members
- Spokesperson on behalf of non-white artists at a meeting with the then Under Secretary at the Home Office
- Organiser and Chairman of a meeting of Equity members with representatives of the Writers’ Guild, the Society of Authors, the Theatre Writers’ Union, the ACTT, BBC Enterprises, the Association of Directors & Producers, the Personal Managers’ Association, Literary Agents and the Video Copyright Protection Society to discuss the role of Public Service Broadcasting, video piracy and other matters allied to the technological revolution
- Counsellor, after being trained by the Rev Chad Varah, of the suicidal and despairing
- Attended a course in Fundraising and Sponsorship run by Luke Rittner and Mary Allen for the Association for Business Sponsorship of the Arts
Personal life
From a distinguished family (his three uncles, Professor K. Swaminathan, Dr. K. Venkataraman & Dr. K.S. Sanjivi have the unique distinction of being the only three brothers all to be awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India); his distinguished cousins include Venky Narayanamurti (Dean of his faculty at Harvard), Dr Dharma KumarDharma Kumar
Dharma Kumar was an Indian economic historian, noted for her work on the fiscal history of India. Her Ph.D at Cambridge on the fiscal history of South India was awarded the Ellen MacArthur Prize, and was published as Land and Caste in South India .She is noted for the position that many of the...
(née Venkataraman) the Economist,who whilst at Cambridge University, wrote an acclaimed thesis on the caste system, and Raghavan Iyer (Rhodes Scholar, President of the Oxford Union, Isis Idol, Oxford Fellow and Professor at the University of Santa Barbara). Madhav is the uncle of the academic, travel writer & novelist Pico Iyer
Pico Iyer
Pico Iyer is a British-born essayist and novelist. He is the author of numerous books on travel including Video Night in Kathmandu. His shorter pieces regularly appear in Time, Harper's, NYRB and many other publications.-Life and career:...
and Ramachandra Guha (who writes on cricket, the environment and politics, and has also been awarded the Padma Bhushan). Madhav, who has always seen himself as the 'white sheep', so to speak, of the family, was formerly married to the British actress Jenny Seagrove
Jenny Seagrove
Jennifer Ann Seagrove is an English actress. She trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and rose to fame playing the lead in a TV dramatisation of Barbara Taylor Bradford's A Woman of Substance and the 1983 film Local Hero...
. He was labelled by the judge presiding over their divorce case as her Svengali
Svengali
Svengali is a fictional character of George du Maurier's 1894 novel Trilby. Svengali "would either fawn or bully and could be grossly impertinent. He had a kind of cynical humour that was more offensive than amusing and always laughed at the wrong thing, at the wrong time, in the wrong place...
and accused him of "using his wife as his crutch". His frequent calls to her during their separation was "harrowing" to her then partner, Michael Winner
Michael Winner
Michael Robert Winner is a British film director and producer, active in both Europe and the United States, also known as a food critic for the Sunday Times.-Early life and early career :...
. His current theatrical agents are Ken McReddie Associates, London.